It appears that Russia has taken control of Crimea without firing a shot and is referring to it as the "Autonomous Republic of Crimea," presumably with the intention of making it a puppet state of Moscow.

Ukraine's government in Kiev is only a few days old and seems to be in disarray. So far, it's avoiding any strong military overreaction that would provide Russia with an excuse for a further military invasion, perhaps into eastern Ukraine beyond Crimea. However, the government warned Sunday it was on the brink of disaster and called up military reservists to counter Russia's threat to Ukraine.

Russia has appointed Sergey Aksyonov to prime minister of Crimea, and on Sunday he announced:

I believe that this day will go down in history of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as the day that all law enforcement agencies were established in the autonomy. We will prove that the Crimeans are capable of protecting themselves and ensure the safety and freedom of our citizens.

...

Today the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is formed as an independent, integral public authority. I am sure that all of us will prove that we did not just come into power and that we can give Crimeans what they expect from us.

We will never see 'Maidan' with their black smoke and burned tires here. I responsibly promise that Crimea by May will be calm, quiet, friendly. People of all nationalities will live here happily....

Krustchev, at the time of the Soviet Union, attached Crimea to the USSR of Ukraine in 1954.
From then on Crimea has been an autonoumus republic, with its own Prime Minister, government, parliment and own budget.

I don’t recall that at the time, the US, EU and NATO cared then for Serbia’s “sovereignity and territorial integrity”, like they say to care now about Ukraine’s.
The contradictions posture doesn’t seem to bother them, or trouble their sleep, even though no one of them is ready “to die for Kiev”.

No, his use of NATO as a go-by/buy, has never escaped my attention. Clinton and a few others, should be fully prosecuted for War Crimes against Humanity. There were no good players in the mix, yet- he sided Our Country with the worst. Profit was the motivation, and it is complex to fully describe, in this forum.

That's probably why Obama and Kerry supported the putsch in Ukraine. They wanted a new camp Bondsteel there

Bondsteel, the biggest US military camp in Europe, had to close down in juin 2013. Why is it still open? It has little value as a regional base since it lacks an airstrip with aircraft hangars. It has no port or rail facilities nor ammunition warehouses. The 750 soldiers left there are amusing themselves in games like "what to do, if a suspicious package is left in a public place?" ...

The problem with your (the Serb) argument is that it's endless. Russia does something bad, such as invade Georgia, and the response is "but Serbia." Russia invades Ukraine? But Serbia.

The consequence of making the argument is that, by reflexively defending the Russian action by claiming that Serbia was wronged, you effectively defend the American action by claiming that Ukraine/Georgia is ok.

It’s been called the Autonomous Republic of Crimea since 1921. Ukraines had no association with Crimea until 1954, when Nikita Krushchev (himself a native of Ukraine) and premier of the Soviet Union transferred the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic from the Russian Federation to the Ukraine S.S.R. I guess the commies thought the U.S.S.R. was going to last forever. As far as I know, the Ukraines did nothing to deserve this prize and now the Russians, who wrested control of Crimea from the Ottoman Empire way back when, want it back. The Ukraine nationalists helped them by recently outlawing use of the Russian language, spoken by the majority of the Crimean population.

I stand corrected. No matter who claimed sovereignty over the borderlands village where Khrushchev was born, he was ethnically Russian. So it’s still mysterious how Ukraine was able to gain sovereignty over Crimea. Ukraine is in for a whole lot of hurt. The young people there whether ethnic Russian or Ukraine see no hope for the future if chained to the Russian Empire. The Ukraine nationalists are doing their best to discriminate against Russian speakers. And this just drives them into Putin’s arms.

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